One ad running regularly on network TV these days sends a message that seems to this old white guy to be counter-intuitive while sending no message at all about what it's selling.

See, I can remember the plot, but I can't remember the product.

What happens is this: A girl with a boy in hand goes into a home office and there sits her dad, who greets the young man as Steven.

The girl, obviously looking for privacy, rolls her eyes and heads for another room where the two find Mom, who greets the boiy as Steve.

Exit girl and beau to the living room where little sis is watching TV. Sis leaves, scene shifts to show boy and girl PLAYING A VIDEO GAME.

So, that right there is the counter-intuitive part: A girl has a boy over to play a video game.

I mean, video games are boy stuff, right?

Well, that's what I have long been thinking. Obviously, the maker of this ad know something I don't.

And that is now confirmed by research done by Charlie Kuhn, Ashley Brunch and Rosalind Wiseman, reported today at the Time Tech blog online.

The three surveyed junior high kids, boys and girls, and found that both genders don't care much for rank sexism in video games, both genders couldn't care less about the gender of heroes.

This is a 1,400-kid sample, maybe not enough to spot a good trend. But, you can bet that an advertising outfit doesn't spend good money on a commercial if it doesn't believe it can capture and keep an audience. OK, forget for a minute that I can't remember what they're trying to sell me.

How will the U.S. stock market react today to yesterday's vote by Greeks to reject an austerity plan put forward by wealthy Europeans and their banks?

My guess, put into play here on Monday morning, is that the market will take a dive.

What I don't know is why that should be the case. I only know that in the past few weeks as Greece has shown resistance to the new European financing plan the market seems to be following the Greek reaction very closely. Thus my prediction.

Let me say that again: I don't know why U.S. market should tumble because of what happens in Greece.

The market didn't go into the tank when the Chinese marketplace had a hiccup recently. Greece is not nearly as significant as China.

I have long thought this: The U.S. stock market is no longer rational, no longer based on logic or reason. It's computerized to the max; trades happen in nanoseconds; humans are marginalized.

Worse, most Americans, including economists, don't have good enough information about what's going on in the world to be able to make rational decisions even if they could.

This was confirmed in the Sunday New York Times Magazine in an article written by Adam Davidson, a contributing writer. Davidson points out how antiquated oiur economic references, terms and statistical inputs are.

Davidson wants an upgrade using modern computer equipment so we have better information.

Like other forms of illiteracy, innumeracy seems to me to be a growing problem and one that is most certainly a threat to democracy.

Since a guy named Huff invented the word back in the '50s, lots of math-literate writers have warned about how the media and politicians can mangle "data" in the service of whatever scoundrelly purpose they are up to.

The examples are too numerous to mention here.

But, thanks to Jordan Ellenberg of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and author of a book on math and society we are reminded about how numbers can be made to lie.

Ellenberg's piece is in The Wall Street Journal of 6-27-28.

I have seen much on the challenges of dealing with Big Data recently, but little on how even small data can be changed to meet the needs of liars and thieves.

Ellenberg makes a strong point: We need people in the newsroom who can check not only a number's value but also its meaning.

Amen, brother.

My experience as an editor informed this perception: Few reporters go into the news business because they are good at math. It's up to editors to make them learn what they need to know in order to be responsible purveyors of the truth.

Before this past weekend, the last time I flew anywhere was about three summers ago, and the experience was terrible.

I wound up getting into Austin from Oakland, Calif., at about 3 in the morning, then having to drive to Wimberley, because of various delays.

This weekend, we left Friday and came back Sunday, and there were no glitches on our Southwest flights.

The experience was kind of like it was to ride a cross-country bus in the '60s, which is something I did in 1966, to be specific.

No frills. No thrills.

This weekend's flight was memorable mainly because of the undiluted rudeness of every single TSA employee I ran into, and it seems like when you fly these days you do run into quite a lot of them. There must be a ratio of something like three TSA workers for every traveler. How in the world do we as a nation afford this?

I don't know. And not much I can do about it except try never to fly again if I can help it.

On the other hand, the highlight of the trip was eating the absolute very best hotdog I have ever had in my life -- at a stand in Midway International in Chicago.